Andy Coulson under pressure to defend his editorship

There are new allegations that the newspaper employed a freelance private investigator despite knowing that he had been accused of corrupting police officers and just been released from a seven-year prison sentence for blackmail.

In fact, the private eye worked for the NoW many years before being jailed. It is now alleged that he was rehired by NoW after coming out of prison.

New allegations now suggest there were four other investigators who worked for the NoW while Coulson was either editor or deputy editor of the paper. All four are understood to have used illegal methods to gather information.